Ron it may not be as simple as colour. Greg wrote "It screwed into the end of the deraileur and the end of the cable housing (with a ferrule) in turn slotted into the adjuster when I threaded the cable through." On my XT RD there is no thread to accept an adjuster unlike every other RD in my experience. It may be another type of adjuster?

Uncle Just wrote:Ron it may not be as simple as colour. Greg wrote "It screwed into the end of the deraileur and the end of the cable housing (with a ferrule) in turn slotted into the adjuster when I threaded the cable through." On my XT RD there is no thread to accept an adjuster unlike every other RD in my experience. It may be another type of adjuster?

That is why I put Ritchey Barrel Adjusters here. They just push in just like the end of a cable outsides go into RD.

Re the barrel adjuster fit - to be honest, it's almost a year since I built up the bike and I couldn't remember whether it screwed in or slotted in to the 2010 XT derailleur. For the reason you noted, I wrote that it screwed in but the design will be the same as the XT derailleur you have, ie, slot in.

Also, good comment on the desirability of using of down-tube shifting levers on touring bikes. In addition to my new touring bike, the 20-year old tourer, which I refurbished in 1998, also has 9-speed dura ace DT shifters, and another bike that I now use as a utility bike has 7-speed DT shifters. But I have Ergopower shifters on other more performance-oriented bikes.

In one of my posts above I mentioned that there was sometimes slight front brake squeal with the Tektro CR720 wide-profile cantilevers. However, after a change of brake pads (cartridge type) I took the Surly on a long ride yesterday (162km, with 105km of gravel), as mentioned in a post on the ACT page ( viewtopic.php?f=17&t=24093&start=1650#p734599 ). I experienced no hint of squeal, and the very effective braking I'm used to, despite going down lengthy, sometimes rough gravel descents of 10 - 12km. Just thought I'd mention.

Also, a recent change of front brake pads on the 2007 Shimano R550 high-profile cantilevers on my old tourer has eliminated squeal and judder, and thus an amazing difference in brake performance though they are quite inferior to the Tektro CR720s in braking power. My partner Toni also has the R550s on her newish Thorn 'Sherpa' and experiences no squeal or judder. She preferred the look of the high profile cantilevers and reckons the braking is good (which seems right when I've road tested it), so these things are hard to predict.

Righto, I've managed to get around to sorting some of my pics out, so here's a pic of my touring bike:

It's a modified Charge Duster frame, built up by St Kilda Cycles as a demo bike. I was thinking of building up a Thorn/LHT kind of bike, toying with the idea of a 29er etc, and then I saw this. "Oh, it's got BB7s, Oh, Rohloff! Sweet! Wow! A belt!..... Hmmmm....."

The belt and the BB7s were the bits that were/are a bit controversial for me, but I'm pretty confident in them now. The BB7s weren't set up well at all and needed work, and so did the belt. I felt like I'd made a mistake to start with because there was so much tension in belt that it wouldn't freewheel well at all and it made a grinding noise when I was pedalling, but with a bit of tweaking that was all sorted - it was mainly to do with chainline and tension. I'd be interested to try the newer Centertrack Gates Belt system to see if it was less reliant on perfect chainline and tension...

I've loaded it up and ridden it to Walker Creek in Litchfield NP and it was great. It handled the rough road really well and I'm looking forward to touring on the rougher stuff in North America later this year.

The bars had less rise when I bought it so I swapped them to Thorn Comfort bars, and I have a nice tall stem on the way to get them higher still - I guess one of the downsides to modifying a racing mountain bike is that the forks usually come with a short steerer, and the head tube is usually shortish too...

Sorry you think so. Your video clip as far as I can tell, shows your Edelux and tail light fine but I get no view of your barswhen I watch it.I asked as your above pic (sideview) of your bike looks like your riser bars (Thorn) are angled backwardsat the grips which is a style of bar I find appealing and am contemplating swapping my straight flat bars for.As you had already told us the brand of bar I wouldnt have had to ask you where you got them if I thought they might work on my bike.Unfortunately for me I can see from your cockpit view that your bike has a ahead style stem so I assume it uses the newer style of fatter handlebar.I will however check the Thorn site to see if they do one for an earlier quill stem.Thanks for the pic.

The bars do angle backwards and fit a 25.4mm clamp; same as older quill stems. As you can see, they fit the bar bag attachment without any problems. I find them very comfortable with the Ergon grips. I used to favour drop bars, and I still like them very much, but the one "proper" hand position of these bars has been fine on long rides. The On One Mary bar is supposed to be pretty comfy too, but would struggle with a handlebar bag attachment...

The bell is a Velo Orange or Rivendell one from memory. Dings beautifully...

WestcoastPete wrote:Righto, I've managed to get around to sorting some of my pics out, so here's a pic of my touring bike:

It's a modified Charge Duster frame, built up by St Kilda Cycles as a demo bike....

Was that the one St Kilda Cycles had at the Bicycle Australia Show the year before last ?? Saw that one and it got my appetite all wetted about building a Rohloff tourer. The genesis that was further pricked when a friend told me about Rohloffs from German wbsites for a bit over $1000

I decided a belt-drive was a bit too radical though.

Riding bikes in traffic - what seems dangerous is usually safe; what seems safe is often more dangerous.

Good ol' tyre boot comes in handy for this sort of thing - carry a section of old tyre, with the beads cut off; or a piece of flexible plastic eg. piece of plastic milk bottle; or use a good ol' $5 note. Place it inside your tyre between casing and the tube.

The boot takes all the pressure and prevents further damage to the split. I've seen it done/done it for others numerous times. You can ride for many hundreds of kilometres like this.

Having said all that, internationally, if you need to replace a tyre, anywhere outside of North America, Europe and Australia 26" is the tyre size to be looking for.

Riding bikes in traffic - what seems dangerous is usually safe; what seems safe is often more dangerous.

WestcoastPete wrote: I still think 29ers have merit and that Ben had bad luck.

29ers may have merit for MTB racing where any small advantage is prized. The larger wheels may roll better over rough ground, but on smooth surfaces there is no advantage to be gained.

Recently I've been alternating rides between my Sabbath and Van Nicholas. Both have titanium frames, and are fitted with Marathon Supemes - the Sabbath is fitted with 700x32 so is effectively a 29er already, the VN is fitted with 26"x1.6". I cannot perceive any difference between the two as far as rolling resistance or ride quality is concerned, and can't imagine any other point of comparison that might be relevant in the touring context.

BTW Peter, I saw you got a mention in the NT News recently - that was you wasn't it?

Last edited by RonK on Fri Jan 27, 2012 6:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

WestcoastPete wrote: I still think 29ers have merit and that Ben had bad luck.

29ers may have merit for MTB racing where any small advantage is prized. The larger wheels may roll better over rough ground, but on smooth surfaces there is no advantage to be gained.

Recently I've been alternating rides between my Sabbath and Van Nicholas. Both have titanium frames, and are fitted with Marathon Supemes - the Sabbath us fitted with 700x32 so is effectively a 29er already, the VN is fitted with 26"x1.6". I cannot perceive any difference between the two as far as rolling resistance or ride quality is concerned, and can't imagine any other point of comparison that might be relevant in the touring context.

Having larger wheels that roll better over rough ground is the only reason I was considering (and still see merit in) 29ers for offroad touring on a rigid framed bike. The main things holding them back for me is that there aren't many 29er tyres with any serious puncture resistance that are any bigger than 50mm and they're almost impossible to replace outside of USA/Europe (and even then it can be tough). Sure, booting a tyre is an option, but I wonder what decisions Ben would have made if he wasn't able to replace that tyre and he had to ride with a booted tyre for the next week or so.

I'm happy with 26" and 2.3" tyres, but I'll be keeping an eye on the evolution of 29er is the MTN bike world.

RonK wrote:BTW Peter, I saw you got a mention in the NT News recently - that was you wasn't it?

bardynt wrote:hey that sucks so do you use a trailer when going out to berry springs

i was thinking of riding out there

hehe - sorry Bardy, I should have said that was in 1966. Last time I lived in Darwin was back in 1884, and I swore I'd never live there again. Can't stand the climate - even Brisbane is too tropical for me these days. I'm hoping to retire to Hobart eventually.

In 1966 the road to Berry Spring was unsealed, corrugated, loose red pea-gravel, not to mention it was a 70 miles return - it was tough ride.

A drunk driver hit me from behind - luckily I wasn't seriously injured but my bike was destroyed. Another driver put it in the boot of his car and took me home, and next day the NT News turned up and wanted to take a photo, which was printed on the front page. I still have a cutting somewhere. The dumb reporter spelled my name wrong.

This incident started my racing career - when I returned to the bike shop they had heard the story, and offered me a beautiful Super Elliot racer which had been used in the Alice to Darwin race only a few weeks earlier. They had provided one of the riders with the bike to use as a sponsorship.

Last edited by RonK on Sat Jan 28, 2012 10:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

bardynt wrote:hey that sucks so do you use a trailer when going out to berry springs

i was thinking of riding out there

hehe - sorry Bardy, I should have said that was in 1966. Last time I lived in Darwin was back in 1884, and I swore I'd never live there again. Can't stand the climate - even Brisbane is too tropical for me these days. I'm hoping to retire to Hobart eventually.

In 1966 the road to Berry Spring was unsealed, corrugated, loose red pea-gravel, not to mention it was a 70 miles return - it was tough ride.

A drunk driver hit me from behind - luckily I wasn't seriously injured but my bike was destroyed. Another driver put it in the boot of his car and took me home, and next day the NT News turned up and wanted to take a photo, which was printed on the front page. I still have a cutting somewhere. The dumb reporter spelt my name wrong.

This incident started my racing career - when I returned to the bike shop they had heard the story, and offered me a beautiful Super Elliot racer which had been used in the Alice to Darwin race only a few weeks earlier. They had provided one of the riders with the bike to use as a sponsorship.